A Global Lesson by Reinhard Mohn - Excerpt

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description

Reinhard Mohn has grappled with the political and cultural changes of recent decades like few other entrepreneurs of his time. In this deeply personal book, Mohn, for the first time, describes his entrepreneurial development in the context of his own fascinating personal experiences. A Global Lesson plumbs the extraordinary depth of Mohn’s life, from his Protestant upbringing and his time as a German soldier in an American POW camp during World War II to his socially conscious choices as a young businessman.

Transcript of A Global Lesson by Reinhard Mohn - Excerpt

Page 1: A Global Lesson by Reinhard Mohn - Excerpt
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A Global Lesson

Success Through Cooperation and

Compassionate Leadership

Reinhard Mohnwith Andrea Stoll

translated from the german by Helga Schier

C. Bertelsmann

CROWN PUBLISHERSn e w y o r k

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Translation copyright © 2009 by Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved.Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com

Crown is a trademark and the Crown colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in German in Germany as Von der Welt lernen: Efolg durch Menschlichkeit und Freiheit by Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH, München, in 2008. Copyright © 2008 by C. Bertelsmann Verlag, München.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-307-58768-8

Printed in the United States of America

Design by Level C

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First American Edition

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Contents

FAMILY ORIGINS AND PERSONAL LESSONS

About This Book 13Protestant Traditions and My Desire for Independence 15My Youth During National Socialism and World War II 23My Time as a POW as an Opportunity 31The Bertelsmann Employees Expect That I

Take Leadership 34Apprenticeship and Initial Steps Toward a

New Corporate Culture 37Our “King’s Idea” and the Troubles of

the Economic Miracle 41

EXPERIENCES OF AN ENTREPRENEUR

The Building Blocks of Our Corporate Culture 49A Global Lesson 55Ensuring the Quality of Management 62A Question of Personality 68

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10 Contents

Motivation and Commitment in a Large Corporation 72The Need for Competition in a Democracy and

a Market Economy 76Progress Needs Freedom 82The Signifi cance of Spiritual Orientation for

State and Society 88The Political Foundations of the Future:

Humanity and Justice 93

ON THE ROAD INTO THE FUTURE

Making Personal Decisions and Setting an

Entrepreneurial Course 97The Dialogue of Cultures: A Necessity for Global

Coexistence 102The Continuity of Democracy and Leadership 108Experiences with Our Corporate Culture 113The Signifi cance of Democratic Principles for a

Cooperation of Cultures 119Progress Needs Spiritual Orientation 124Corporate Culture and Democracy:

Our Hopes for the Future 128

Homework Essay of the Student Reinhard Mohn 135

The History of the Bertelsmann Corporation:

An Overview 167

Notes 181

Index of Names 187

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Family Origins and Personal

Lessons

About This Book

To this day I still enjoy my daily hour- long walks

through the forest. I need these moments of solitude.

Having time to think without interruption gives me strength

and relaxes me. This has helped me in many situations

throughout my life. Where am I? What are my next steps?

Are my goals realistic? What could I do better? These are

the questions that have accompanied me over the decades.

They are inextricably intertwined with my journey through

life and with the creation of the Bertelsmann Corporation.

I was born in 1921 in Gütersloh, Germany. The turbulent

twentieth century presented me with innumerable chal-

lenges, and often I wasn’t sure how to handle them. When

I returned from the war as a young man in January 1946,

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14 Reinhard Mohn

I never would have dreamt that from the rubble of the de-

stroyed publishing house would grow a media company

with offi ces in more than fi fty countries and with more

than one hundred thousand employees. How the condi-

tions in our society have changed since then! The political

and cultural changes of the past fi ve decades have initiated a

process of globalization, challenging the way we think and

do things in our daily lives. This process even infl uences the

development of democracy in Germany.

Throughout all those years the Bertelsmann Corporation

has had the opportunity to collect manifold experiences, de-

veloping its enterprise in shifting political climates in Ger-

many and Europe, as well as in the United States, Russia,

India, and China. Considering the challenges of globaliza-

tion, these experiences seem more relevant than ever. How

were we able to establish a dialogue with people of such

different origins and beliefs? What entrepreneurial decisions

were necessary to successfully manage an international

company with more than one hundred daughter companies?

Why did Bertelsmann in Germany during my time never see

a labor strike? In short: What is the secret of our success? In

spite of many setbacks and unavoidable disappointments, I

say: It was worth it.

And if today, at the end of my long journey, I’d be al-

lowed one wish, it would be this: Peeking into the future, I

would wish that the tried and tested Bertelsmann manage-

ment style might provide the foundation of a peaceful coex-

istence of cultures.

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15A Global Lesson

All over the world, people tend to cling to habits as if they

were eternal and to chain themselves to well- established

traditions. Fear of what is new, a resistance toward what is

other, toward what is different, has always promoted preju-

dice and dogma, which have historically found the most

signifi cant realization in national states and political sys-

tems. But the Greek philosophers already knew that the real

challenge of life is to accept the process of constant change,

panta rhei.1

History has shown time and again that power and vio-

lence cannot uphold any given human world order eternally.

This experience is still relevant today. What is it that enables

us not only to endure, but also to view the incessant changes

in the cultural, political, economic, and national realm as an

opportunity to build the future with personal strength and

independent action? And what intellectual, political, eco-

nomic, and social conditions are necessary for success?

These are the questions I have explored over the decades.

Looking back on my own personal and entrepreneurial ex-

periences, I now want to reveal the motives that guided my

development.

Protestant Tr aditions and My

Desire for Independence

As far as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated with

the freedom of one’s own thinking. As a sixteen-year- old

student whose homework assignment was to discuss “My

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16 Reinhard Mohn

Thoughts on Choosing a Profession,” I was able (much to

my surprise today) to single out three aspects: a sense of

responsibility toward society, one’s natural abilities, and the

desire for independence and a meaningful life.2 What was

important to my future then has not lost any signifi cance

today.

My upbringing in a disciplined and strict religious house-

hold may have played an important role. It provided a frame

of reference for my character development, which required

an early sense of responsibility and self- discipline. At the

same time, my upbringing fostered my spirit of opposition

and encouraged my search for my natural abilities and inner

motivations, which my Christian education alone could not

satisfy.

Anyone growing up with four older siblings and one

younger brother is no stranger to the joys and hardships of

human society. In my parents’ house, my brother Hans Hein-

rich played the part of the most respected and loved fi rst-

born. But the part of the youngest remained uncast for fi ve

years, until my brother Gerd was born, because a girl who

had been born after me did not survive. The sound of the

church bells at her funeral is one of my earliest memories.

I was considered a sensitive child. I had inherited my

father’s predisposition for allergies and was somewhat

susceptible to colds. But being ill also meant being alone.

My mother Agnes’s strict household did not allow special

treatment. I clearly was the fi fth wheel in our large family,

carefully watching the rituals of our family’s life and my

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17A Global Lesson

older siblings’ activities without feeling like a participant. If

there was something I didn’t understand, I rebelled inside

and would sometimes withdraw. This was bound to lead to

confl icts in a household governed by Christian principles

and strict discipline.

As the publisher of Bertelsmann, my father often hosted

lunches with authors and business partners at our home to

discuss matters of the publishing house. Children had to

keep quiet, of course, which was sometimes diffi cult for me

and didn’t always make sense. As punishment, my mother

would often have me “stand in the corner.” After a while,

she’d ask me if I was ready to behave. No!, I’d declare (to

the amusement of my siblings), I didn’t want that at all!, and

the whole ordeal would start all over again.

My mother, Agnes, was the daughter of Pastor Seippel

of Gütersloh. Due to her mother’s early death, she had had

to take on the responsibility for her younger siblings. The

result was a strong belief in discipline and an uncompro-

mising sense of duty, qualities that she passed on to her

own children. With loving stringency, she administered our

education in a huge household, which included servants,

houseguests (school friends of one of my older sibling’s),

as well as offi cial guests of my father’s. When I was young,

my grandfather Johannes Mohn and my grandmother Frie-

dericke, née Bertelsmann, were also part of that household.

Both sides of the family lived close by, and we were tightly

knit. My sisters graduated from the all- girls high school,

while my oldest brother and I attended the Protestant High

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18 Reinhard Mohn

School in Gütersloh. Even so, we didn’t really go to school

together; I had just started sixth grade as he was graduating

high school, with straight A’s.

The great age difference among us siblings led to other

experiences. My parents would regularly travel to Swit-

zerland or the Black Forest with my four older siblings,

while I was sent to church camps. I didn’t understand that

at the time. From one day to the next I was left behind,

alone among strangers, and, young as I was, I had to rely

on myself. This experience was my early training in being

alone. But what was painful for the child was a challenge to

the youth: Why was this happening to me? Did I agree with

it? What would I do differently, what would I do better? If

you are suddenly without your family or any sympathetic

ear, you learn to engage in conversation with yourself. And

you learn that your own thoughts may lead you further

than what is brought to you from the outside. Being alone as

a child has taught me to talk to, and listen to, myself. And I

still do so, to this day.

The traditions of our Protestant publishing house, which

had been in family hands since its foundation in 1825 and

had been managed by my parents, Heinrich and Agnes

Mohn, since 1921, the year I was born, permeated our fam-

ily’s life. My grandparents’ stories would bring to life his-

torical anecdotes of the publishing house. Over and over

again they’d make us aware of the historical origins of the

publishing house founded by the Protestant lithographer

Carl Bertelsmann in 1835. His many experiences as church

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19A Global Lesson

council leader and city offi cial, providing both a religious

and an entrepreneurial model to his son Heinrich, were a

natural part of our family conversations at the dinner table.

My grandfather Johannes Mohn, too, had been active as

city offi cial, Presbyterian church master, and curator of the

Protestant High School in Gütersloh (cofounded by Carl

Bertelsmann). And he had been director of the board of

many missionary societies, as well as a board member of the

Association of Protestant Book Dealers. All that in addi-

tion to his leadership at the publishing house. A Protestant

conviction and lived entrepreneurship was as natural to my

siblings and me as our daily bread. Through prayers at the

table and worship at our home, during which my father

would read from his prayer book and accompany the hymns

on the piano, our Christian education permeated our private

lives. And, of course, church attendance on Sundays was

mandatory!

My father’s personal leadership style followed in the

Protestant tradition established by Bertelsmann’s founder,

Carl Bertelsmann. In the fi rst half of the twentieth century,

the lithographic company had developed to a midsize pub-

lishing house, which, after World War I, in 1923, shrunk to

only six employees from eighty in 1910. In the wake of an

increasing openness to popular literature, the publishing

house grew to four hundred and forty employees by 1939.

Despite this enormous growth, the company’s management

style lost none of its patriarchal character: mutual loyalty

and compassionate concern were still an undiminished

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20 Reinhard Mohn

priority. Following the Christian tradition, nobody was

to work on a Sunday. My grandmother made sure of this

with the threat of cutting off the electricity! Following the

family’s tradition, the sense of personal responsibility taken

by the Bertelsmann publishing house toward its employees

extended even to social initiatives. For example, my grand-

parents and parents were concerned about the betterment of

their hometown, so they initiated the foundation of a pre-

school (in addition to other social initiatives). And, for the

benefi t of their employees, they established a pension and

company health plan.

These various activities, along with the fl uctuations of the

company’s business during the economically unstable 1920s,

were an additional burden on my father’s high- strung sensi-

bilities, already strained by his asthma. Although we were

children, we were quite aware of the terrible unemployment

and the suffering of so many people after World War I; not

only was this the subject of many conversations, but our

own family’s sometimes meager meals became unforgettable

memories of my generation.

Due to my father’s asthma, the family moved to the

healthier climate of Braunlage in the Harz mountains in

1923. This is where I started school. But staying in the

low mountain range only brought temporary relief for my

father’s condition, so we moved back to Gütersloh. My fa-

ther’s health declined steadily during the 1930s, and at the

start of World War II, he was practically unable to work.

My father had very little impact on me personally; by

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21A Global Lesson

and large he passed on only a few helpful insights. Without

a doubt, the formative personality in my childhood was

my mother. If I had problems at school, I talked them over

with her. My hay fever, which plagued me from day one all

my school years, along with my stress- induced fevers and

my dyslexia (undetected at the time), took a high toll on

my classroom performance. Consequently, my mother had

doubts about my talents and abilities. Eventually I trans-

ferred to the branch of our high school that focused on the

natural sciences. It was then that I discovered how much I

enjoyed sports. My health improved, as did my performance

at school. But the fears and insecurities of early years would

still echo inside me. As a senior I didn’t have the confi dence

to assume the offi ce of class president offered to me by my

classmates. But in 1939 I did graduate as one of the better

students.

There is one incident in particular that sticks out from

those years, which illustrates my early refl ections on per-

sonal responsibility. One day we had a spelling test. At the

end of the class the teacher collected the notebooks and

handed them to me, since I, as the elected student liaison,

held the key to the teacher’s desk. During the break, one of

the students came up to me, saying he had made a mistake

on the test, and that I should give him his notebook so he

could correct it. His request created quite a dilemma for me.

I was torn between my feelings of friendship and my sense

of responsibility.

Despite deep reservations, my feelings of friendship won

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22 Reinhard Mohn

out, and I honored my fellow student’s request. That night

I couldn’t sleep! As soon as morning came, I confessed my

mistake to my mother. She discussed the situation with my

oldest brother, Hans Heinrich. That same morning, Hans

spoke to the principal, who came to the conclusion that

giving the key to a ten-year- old student had not been a wise

decision.

This experience stayed with me for a long time. I learned

one of my life’s lessons, and have since avoided diffi cult situ-

ations with improprieties!

Without a doubt, I was a child with an active inner life,

a child who thought long and hard about experiences at

home and at school. Above and beyond my technical and

mathematical interests and talents, I was searching for a

deeper meaning. The religious discipline of my parents’

home, however, with its daily rituals of worship and prayer,

did not offer me true motivation. More memorable by far

were the religious teachings of Pastor Florin. His teachings

were different because he didn’t only want to pass on the

well- known themes and contents of the Christian faith; he

also wanted to make the biblical stories relevant to us. This,

for example, is how he described the Sermon on the Mount:

Jesus told his disciples that he’d give a sermon on a nearby

mountain. His disciples informed the believers, adding that

the endeavor might take a while longer, and that it might

be advisable to bring along provisions. And after Jesus had

spoken on the mountain for several hours, his disciples re-

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23A Global Lesson

minded him to announce a break for bread, because people

were hungry. Jesus followed their advice and broke in half

two large pieces of bread the disciples had brought along,

letting them distribute it. Everyone in the audience un-

packed their own provisions and thus everyone had enough

to eat. This vivid and realistic interpretation of a miracle im-

pressed me greatly—told like that, religion was suspenseful

and convincing!

My parents, on the other hand, noticed more and more

that a purely formal education in religious matters meant

little to me. The older I became, the less formal religion

touched me. After my confi rmation, my mother left it up to

me to decide whether I wanted to participate in the family’s

worship. This had been a long time coming, and I decided to

no longer participate.

Because of the large size of our family with its divergent

interests, a most important question became ever clearer to

me, until I couldn’t avoid it any longer: “Who am I? Which

way shall I turn?”

My Youth During National

Socialism and World War II

By Easter 1939, when I fi nally held my diploma in hand,

freely choosing a profession was already out of the ques-

tion. Following my technical inclinations, I had intended

to undertake the study of engineering after completing my

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24 Reinhard Mohn

six months’ civil service (required of all males of my genera-

tion). But Hitler’s march into Poland on September 1, 1939,

put an end to this plan once and for all.

National Socialism had molded the private and social life

of the 1930s to conform to its ideology. Therefore my youth,

as well as that of my siblings, was tightly controlled by our

membership in NS- youth organizations: the Jungvolk, the

Hitler- Jugend, and the Bund Deutscher Mädel. But I felt

that my parents were politically guarded.

With my support, an independent group of historians

conducted a detailed historical reappraisal of the history of

the Bertelsmann publishing house in the years between 1933

and 1945.3 Here I’d like to stay true to my personal memo-

ries, aligning my retrospective assessment of those years

with my personal experiences.

My Protestant father focused his publishing vision on

works of theological content. Due to his health problems, he

had to delegate many tasks to his executive employees.

The infl ation after World War I brought Bertelsmann to

the brink of fi nancial ruin. Of the eighty- four employees on

our payroll in 1921, the year of my birth, only six remained

two years later. The publishing house had to survive, and my

father supported the measures suggested by the management

in the 1920s to diversify the publishing program to increase

revenue. Little by little, popular literature made its way onto

the publishing list. This ensured our survival in the midst of

a worldwide economic crisis. Fritz Wixforth, then director

of distribution, undertook an initiative that aimed for wide-

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25A Global Lesson

spread impact: popular literature in high volume and at low

prices. This, along with special window displays in retail

bookstores, made spectacular sales possible.

Before long, this distribution model infl uenced the trav-

eling sales and mail- order book business. Combining the-

matically linked books in one set allowed traveling salesmen

direct sales. The use of such sets had played an impressive

role even prior to World War II. We understood, for the fi rst

time, that the retail book business, however well organized,

did not cover all markets in our country.4 The fi ction and

poetry collections in so- called fi eld- post editions also gen-

erated great commercial successes for the publishing house.

There is no doubt that during the Third Reich, Bertels-

mann applied these business models to further the devel-

opment of the publishing house. Yet I did not sense any

personal political involvement of my parents above and

beyond what was necessary to ensure the interests of the

publishing house. Yet anyone who, like my siblings and me,

had absorbed the ideals of a national community as taught

in National Socialist schools, youth organizations, and

sports clubs, would, even as adults, march with excitement

and without hesitation toward the abyss that led to the out-

break of World War II.

The catastrophic consequences of an entire nation’s blind-

ness came to our door only days after the war had begun:

My oldest brother, Hans Heinrich, was killed on September

10, 1939, in Poland. My mother suffered from this to the day

she died. Her oldest son had been the apple of her eye, the

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26 Reinhard Mohn

desired heir, the future of the family. After his death, she

would spend a lot of time alone in his room, which was to

be preserved as it was during his lifetime. Hans Heinrich’s

death changed the life of the entire family. My mother, who

had always been a very active woman, began more and more

to live in the past.

I had to make my own decisions in the fall of 1939. I was

a proven track and fi eld athlete and glider pilot. I adored

fl ying. If you volunteered for the service, not only were

you favored for an offi cer’s career, you were also allowed to

choose your arm of service. I was hoping for a career as a

pilot and started my service in an air and fi eld training com-

mand in Quedlinburg. By January 1940, I was transferred

to an airfi eld command, and shortly thereafter to the air

defense. After several months of duty at the Western front, I

was admitted to the offi cer’s training near Utrecht. One year

later, in January 1941, I was promoted to second lieutenant.

But despite my proven fi tness to fl y, my dreams of becoming

a pilot would never materialize. Instead, the leadership qual-

ities I had developed in early years drove me to ever-more

challenging situations, both personally and materially.

As a twenty- one-year- old offi cer, not only was I in

charge of four air defense guns and rapid- fi re cannons, but

I also had forty- fi ve previously convicted soldiers under my

command. This was in the Netherlands.

This would have been a challenge even for a seasoned of-

fi cer. For a man as young as I, dealing with a group of crafty,

violence- prone men was rather risky.

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27A Global Lesson

When one of the soldiers asked for weekend leave, I

agreed. Regular leave was his right. “That’s okay,” I said,

“but please remember that you have to be back on time! You

know what happens if you are not. I am required to notify

my superiors, and as a previously convicted soldier, this

will result in a transfer to a penal colony.” It was clear to us

all that transfer to a penal colony sealed the fate of any sol-

dier. My orders were clear. But as the evening of his return

progressed, the man was not back at the appointed time. I

can still see myself standing high up on a railway bridge,

considering what to do. Finally I went to sleep. About an

hour later, the man knocked at my door, which was guarded

by a soldier. “Let’s compare time,” I said to the man, “I have

exactly twenty-four hundred hours.” “Yes,” he responded.

“Lieutenant, will you report me?” I replied, “I do not want

to discuss this with you now. We will talk about what needs

to be done in the morning.” But the man knew I had no

choice but to follow the rules to the letter and to report the

incident. One exception would have made me vulnerable

to blackmail by these men, and I would have been at their

mercy.

Only a little bit later, at around two in the morning,

the soldier standing guard over the weapons called me.

“Lieutenant,” he said, “the man shot himself.” I got up, got

dressed, and strapped on my gun. It was a bright, moonlit

night. I walked over to the soldiers’ quarters. They could

all see me. I didn’t know what to expect. It was a diffi cult

situation. The man was lying dead in the recreation room,

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28 Reinhard Mohn

a suicide note full of anger and vengeance next to him: “I

am taking Mohn with me to the happy hunting- grounds,” it

said. Of course, the news spread like wildfi re.

I reported the incident to my superiors immediately. A

court- martial was unavoidable. The incident was investi-

gated in all details. The court- martial questioned not only

me, but everyone else as well. The noncommissioned of-

fi cers had to justify themselves, and there wasn’t a single

one among them who had anything negative to say about

me. Finally the court- martial criticized the commander and

declared: “You’ve made a mistake. You don’t give such a dif-

fi cult task to an offi cer as young as this one.”

Despite the positive evaluation, this incident was one

I could not shake off. I questioned my youthful behavior

again and again. I know that based on who I was at that

time and in that place, I could not have dealt with it in any

other way. I have always walked the straight and narrow in

my life. In fact, there were times when striving to do right

was my only guidance through diffi cult situations. For

during the years in the German army, I had to master other

diffi cult situations.

I was transferred to the Göring Regiment in Berlin and

had the opportunity to witness the grotesque fi gure of the

Reich Marshall up close, face gaudily made up. I wanted to

be transferred to the front as soon as possible, just to get

away from this environment and to be relieved of guard-

ing Göring’s hunting castle, Carinhall. The commander in

charge of me was surprised by my request but understood.

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29A Global Lesson

I was transferred to the reserves of the Göring Regiment in

France. There, too, I had to make diffi cult, far- reaching de-

cisions that made me, young as I was, refl ect upon leadership

styles. Throughout my youth I had experienced nothing but

the hierarchical leadership style of National Socialism, and

no doubt I had internalized the demands of discipline and

obedience. But I had to learn that hierarchy and discipline

were not always enough. You cannot easily persuade people

until you are willing to understand the individual and his

motives. Leaders lead by example!

I was neither ready nor able to see the abyss into which

the NS ideology and its murderous war had pushed us. But

I began to have my own thoughts. My observations of the

behavior of the Nazi leadership in general (and some of-

fi cers in particular) posed unanswerable questions to me.

In the fall of 1942, following Rommel’s last offensive in El

Alamein, our regiment was militarized and transferred to

Italy. But once the Americans landed in March and April

of 1943, we were transferred from Naples to Tunis in order

to face the American and English forces on African soil. It

took only about two more months before another fate was

decided, this time in the mountains of Mateur near Tunis.

That morning my scouting patrol and I were in the pro-

cess of climbing a mountain. We had heard that the Ameri-

cans were approaching from the other side. We had to be

extremely careful. In order to get a view from the top of the

mountain a few hundred yards ahead, three soldiers and I

crawled through brush and thorns. As soon as we had seen

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30 Reinhard Mohn

the tanks, I was shot in my right leg. I knew I could not

return. Therefore, I ordered my patrol to retreat as quickly

as possible, before any of us could be seen, even though it

meant leaving me behind. My comrades carried the news of

the approaching Americans to our post, and I waited to see

what would happen to me.

But then an American soldier appeared. Neither of us

knew quite how we could communicate. In the American’s

eyes, I was the personifi cation of the evil German. I spoke

little English. But I tried to point out my wound and ges-

ticulated that I needed his support if we wanted to leave this

place together. We looked at each other, sizing each other

up. He could have shot me. After all, the situation was risky

for him, too. He’d only be certain if I really was incapaci-

tated once we’d descend the mountain.

In this very tense situation, we both decided to trust each

other. We approached each other, the stranger, the enemy, as

human beings. This experience had a great impact upon me.

The decency of this man has been an example of humanity

to me—one that I would summon up in many diffi cult situ-

ations to come.

Supported by the arm of this unknown soldier, I stumbled

toward a hospital administered by the British. Only a few

days later the Afrika Korps made up of German and Italian

soldiers surrendered, and hundreds of soldiers, myself among

them, began the journey into British and American captivity.

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